Nathan Lint
01/15/07, 01:28 PM
I would like to thank Stephen Christian for taking the time to talk to me right before he left on his trip to India. I'd also like to thank him for being quite possibly the nicest musician i've ever met. I'd also like to thank Libby Henry, the bands publicist, for setting this up for me. Also, Stephen went through the questions all of you asked and answered them all. So if you didn't see your question answered, go to the link here (http://www.absolutepunk.net/journal.php?do=showjournal&j=988#e11453). Sorry, it's not spellchecked.
Anberlin is beginning to enter a new era in your careers. With the upcoming year, you have the
release of your third album. An album you have said to be your "London Calling" or "OK Computer". Do you feel that this album will truly be the one that puts you on the map?
Stephen Yeah, I do. I mean I'm not saying like "We're going to be the next biggest band of all time". Or we're going to be up there with Nirvana or Foo Fighters or Coldplay or U2. I'm not saying that's who we're going to be. I'm just saying for Anberlin as a whole, throughout our career, I am the most confident in this record. In my opinion, this is the best record Anberlin has put out to date. It's not cocky, it's just confidence in knowing that we're finally figured out who Anberlin is and we are just really excited about all these songs and the way that they came out. So I'm not saying that this is going to put us on the map, or that we're going to be the "next big thing". All I'm saying is that for Anberlin ourselves, for the five of us, we feel that this is the best that we've ever done.
As your audience gets bigger, and expectations for commercial success increases, do you feel more compelled to be "less Christian" per se in your songwriting?
Stephen No way, I'm not going to sacrifice my personal beliefs system, something that I've had faith in for about seven years now. I'm not going to put that on the backburner just because my career takes off. It's like a doctor when he graduates from med-school, does he just turn on his beliefs just because he's thrown into a career where he makes money? It's not like that. You have to stand strong with your beliefs no matter what happens in life. If someone dies in your family, or you win the lottery, in both ways you have to stick with you beliefs and stick to what you know. Anberlin is going to be here and gone. Whether it's in five years, or whether it's in ten years, or two months, two weeks. Anberlin is going to be gone one day, and I'm not going to look back on these days and regret not giving it my all, not only to the music but to my fans, my friends, my family, and for my religion. So there's no way that I would ever compromise a belief in a higher power just because of an indie rock scene. The indie rock scene is going to fade. 80's hair metal faded, grunge bands generally faded, and I mean nothing lasts. And music is one of those things that is just not going to last. So I'm not going to give up on something that I believe is eternal for the opinions of others.
What do you have to say about the progression of this album from the last two albums to now? Is this album going to be per se "all grown up"?
Stephen All grown up isn't the right term because I think it's more like a maturity of musicians. When you're on the road, like we have for pretty much the last three and a half years straight, you get better at your instrument because you play it every night. Vocally, you learn what you can do and what you can't do on stage and what range you're in. I think it's almost natural to progress. If you had been racing a car, the more you drive, the better you get. The more you play an instrument, the more you practice, the more you write songs, write lyrics, and if you play with each other every night on stage, I think you just get better at what you do. So I don't think it's all grown up and put on a new image, or dive into music that is unknown to us. It's definitely going to be an
Anberlin record. As soon as you hear the first song, you're like "obviously that's Anberlin." Were not
trying to be all "experimental," we're not the next Pink Floyd; but I definitely feel that we have gotten better at lyric writing, at melodies, at guitar, and I know for sure that this is the best record that Nathan Young, our drummer, has ever played on. It's phenomenal; we've pretty much just let him do whatever he wants. He got a bigger studio. We worked in a studio called London Bridges where Pearl Jam recorded Ten and Alice In Chains recorded their album, and Soundgarden, all these other bands. So it served to be a much better studio for Nathan. He's definitely improved; this is biggest drumming it's ever sounded.
Were there any specific reasons for wanting to work with Aaron Sprinkle again? I know he's been
there forever and seen all your progress, but is there a certain sound you wanted to achieve with him?
Stephen Well actually, we were still up in the air if we were going to use Aaron again. Because we didn't want it to sound, even though we still wanted to stay Anberlin, we weren't getting crazy with our music or trying to be all experimental, we definitely wanted to make sure that this album didn't sound like Never Take Friendship Personal Part Two. I think that's one of the reasons that we did move over to the studio, London Bridges, and not stay in the compounds. We got a different engineer for this record; we definitely went with a much better mixer, and a person that just took the studio to the next level. I guess he was getting better at his profession while we were getting better at ours, and when we talked to him, "You know, Aaron, we just don't want to make a repeat of the last record." He's like "Well, let me think about it." He got back to us and was like "Here are some things that we can change." We're really confident in Aaron's production skills. He's just a great producer, he's a great guy, and we all work really well with him at the end of the day. Then we wanted to change and kind of mix it up with the producers, but at the end of the day, we realized that we shouldn't reinvent the wheel if it's really working for us. Aaron was growing as we grew. So I'm really happy we went with him, and I don't think this record could've turned out as well if we didn't go with Aaron Sprinkle.
What was the writing process like for this album? Did the lyrics come first for your songs, or the melodies?
Stephen Well I think it's pretty much the music that comes first. Joey will either lock himself into the back of the bus or lock himself into his room, and just sit there for days and write and write and write. So when he's done with that, he kind of mixes it down into a CD, gives me the CD, and I'll put it on my iPod. Then I go off on my own and write melodies and lyrics. A lot of times, we just have to compromise. We'll be like "This song is horrible, we need to rewrite it." Or "This line doesn't make sense here. It's just kind of a give and take from there. On other songs like the one we released on iTunes called The Haunting, it was a song that I had written on an acoustic guitar. So I showed Joey the basic chord structure and where the melodies go, and then he goes and kind of rewrites it in his fashion. So that's how it works.
Did you have any central themes, or stories implemented into this album?
Stephen Well it's not like a concept record, or anything like that, but the underlying theme, I'd say, is that it's all about the darker side of life. Whether it's finding yourself in solitude, or just being effected. I guess Cities is more like letting all the skeletons out of the closet and exposing it
for the whole world to see. It's by far the most introspective and autobiographical album we've ever put out. I think it just dives onto a lot of deeper topics, and I think people can relate more if they cling onto the song more, if they can relate to the record. It's like, "Wow man, I've totally experience that before." I think people really cling onto that more, so that's what I try to do. I try to expose as much of myself in the record as humanly possible.
Have you guys chosen a first single off the new album? I know you have released Godspeed and everything, but there has been some speculation that that might not be it.
Stephen Yeah, there is still speculation. We're not 100% sure at this moment. It's not my favorite song on the record, but it's our record labels favorite song right now. We're still talking about it because I don't like it when a band releases a single and it sounds nothing like the rest of the record. I'm not saying Godspeed doesn't sound like anything on the record, but I want the medium, I don't want it to be completely aggressive, or completely on the slow end. I want it to be right in the middle so that when people buy the record theyre not disappointed at all. Godspeed is definitely one of the more aggressive songs on the record, so I just didn't want anyone to be disappointed when they got the record and realized that not all of the songs are much like Godspeed. We're up in the air, as for now Godspeed is the so-called single.
You were just talking about your personal favorite. Is there any song off the new album that was your personal favorite? Or a song you have a personal attachment to?
Stephen Yeah, I don't know when you write a song, it's just hard to pick between them because they all kind of mean something to you. But I guess the one that I probably listen to the most, like over and over, is Fin. Also, Unwinding Cable Car as well. I think that the way that those are structured is pretty unique, and unique to definitely any other Anberlin song. So I really like those two, right now.
Growing up, did you want to be a musician?
Stephen No, I didn't man, I kind of just fell into it. It was always in the back of my head, but it never seemed plausible because I mean, look on Purevolume right now. There must be like almost three hundred thousand bands listed just on Purevolume alone, let alone that's just one specific genre. So there must be like a million bands out there and I never thought in a million years that I'd be like "Oh yeah, I'm going to make it". So it was kind of just like after high school I was just like, "Well, I'm going to college, I'm just going to go start." So I don't know, I was just in this little side band, and one thing led to the next and led to the next and before I knew it, I was swept up on touring full time. I was just like "Oh my gosh, how did this happen?" But, well growing up, I actually wanted to work for like the Peace Corps, and kind of do like humanitarian projects around the world. I would love, even when Anberlin gets done, to go and work with and start orphanages around the world. That would be something that I would completely love to do.
Yeah, I hear you guys are going to India soon.
Stephen Yeah! Right before you called I was packing up my backpack and getting all ready. We leave tomorrow; we'll be gone for about fourteen days. We're going over there to build arts and crafts in the communities, which is also a part of a woman's center where girls who have been a victim of the sex trade, and sex slavery. It's exciting and it's something that is worthwhile for me, and very fulfilling, and something that I definitely want to spread to others, you know? And they don't have to go to India, or Africa, or anywhere, they can just go to their own community, and start to change it for the better.
That's really cool. How did the local scene influence you growing up? What were some of your biggest influences in music and in life?
Stephen Well growing up here, I live in Polk County, which is seriously the redneck capitol of Florida. *laughs* I mean like there's only pick-up trucks and country music here. It's so I just can't stand it we were so very detached, we didn't have like Punk Planet or Alternative Press or anything like that. Because here, it just wasn't popular at newsstands, it was pretty much just like Country Music Times, or whatever. I don't know. So we pretty much had to create our own scene. A lot of us were in a whole bunch of different bands before Anberlin. We just kind of created it, like I seriously ran my own club that was called Mutiny. I was seriously fifteen years old, and I was running this club, just trying to get all these bands from around the country, it was awesome! But then we started to feed off each other, and then out of that small scene, here out of Central Florida area, Copeland came out, and Underoath, and us, and Further Seems Forever. But we all knew each other, like we were all friends way back in the day, and played shows, and I'd play with Timmy from Underoath's band one weekend, he'd come open up for mine here. We all just switched bands. Like at one time, there were like four main bands, none of them being who they are now. They all had different names, and different members. But we would just like switch off. "We'll all come and play in your town, this weekend, and next week, you come spend the night at my house, and we'll all play up here." So it was awesome because we weren't really influences from somebody on the outside. During that time the big bands were like The Offspring and Green Day. We just had no clue about who they were. So that's why I think like Copeland sounds like an original band. Then Underoath is pioneering the screamo scene. We're pretty rock 'n' rolled out, we try and hope we don't sound like anyone else, and I think that the reason being is that we were in this little bubble. We had no idea what was going on on the outside. Then it finally hit, and then somebody at Tooth and Nail discovered that there was this little community of musicians that we should take a chance on. Then, we signed to Tooth and Nail as did Underoath and Copeland went off to The Militia Group. But literally, we lived about fifteen minutes away from each other. So, it was an amazing scene growing up, so we're carefree. Its just awesome to watch those two other bands just explode on the scene. There were some local bands that really influenced all of us as kids, like Seraph, was one. They never made it outside of Polk County. Denison Marrs had a really big influence on Copeland. So there was a whole bunch of bands in the local scene that in our eyes, we thought they were huge, but came to find out that they never really got out of Florida. But in our eyes they were such an influence.
How have you guys responded to the major label seduction?
Stephen Well, that's what we're dealing with right now. We're deciding to go on with a major label or stay on Tooth and Nail, and it's a really hard decision because there are advantages to being on both sides. But honestly there is not much more benefit of going with a major label anymore. Underoath re-signed, they got courted by a whole bunch of major labels but instead they went with Tooth and Nail. It's just that major labels aren't what they used to be. They have all the money in the world, but they have no passion, they have very little passion for your band. They just want what will make them the quick money. In the bands eyes, that could definitely be a benefit, because we
could get more exposure, we could get the CD out there, we could potentially "blow up". But does anyone really like the music? Or are we just a here and now, in the moment band. That's not who we've been in the past, and it doesn't feel like we should change that now. Tooth and Nail have never really treated us poorly; they are really great people. Now they are my really good friends, some of my best friends are John Frazier and Chad Johnson over at Tooth and Nail, our marketing guy and our A&R. They are just two great guys that I hang out with every time I'm in Seattle. So, it's hard to just say, "Oh, we'd love to go to a major label." Because major labels just aren't what they used to be anymore. We just have to do what's best for Anberlin and for the listeners and if we feel we can get more people to try our music out if we go with a major label. But, it's definitely not about the money anymore. Indie labels are as big as major labels now as far as finances go now, as far as how much the actual bands get. So, I don't know, it's up in the air. I don't think it's a matter of "selling out" because who hasn't sold out? I mean indie rock is the new pop. I mean, we are pop music now. Everything from Fall Out Boy to My Chemical Romance are now the leading bands where bands like N*SYNC and Backstreet Boys were five years ago. So, it's not selling out anymore, in staying with indie labels, staying with major labels, it's the same thing nowadays.
Well, actually going along with that how do you feel about the mainstream success of some of the bands you've toured with in the past, like Fall Out Boy and Yellowcard?
Stephen It's awesome, I love it. I'm proud of those guys. I have nothing negative to say about either of those bands. Those guys are so cool. You know, Fall Out Boy treated us so good. Patrick and Andy were some of the coolest people I've ever met. I'm proud of it. I'm stoked to be a part of a scene where music writers are taking the place of puppets. I think all that bubblegum, fake, pop crap can go because it's time that we go back to people writing their own music and playing their own instrument. This is it, this is the music to come, this is the new rock. So, I'm excited man, I'm glad that it's just turned back to the songwriting, not just some fifty year old guy writing music about "Oops I Did It Again", and making a million bucks. It's just disgusting, so whatever.
You have an upcoming tour with Bayside, Meg And Dia, and Jonezetta. You have managed to be booked on a lot of great tours in the past; do you think it's necessary for a band to tour extensively in order to get any "bigger"?
Stephen Absolutely. I mean, you can buy a whole bunch of ads in magazines and do interviews, but until people connect with your music and can be like "Wow, these guys are legit." They can see not only how you act onstage, but how you act offstage as well. If people think you're being cocky, or being stuck-up, people realize that stuff, and people then know what your motives for being in a band are. So I definitely think touring is the biggest marketing you can do for your band. The best thing you can do is to get on the road, and stay on the road. I mean, you get to introduce yourself to new people, and get to see new places and maybe expose yourself to music that's different and could potentially influence you. So I think it's imperative for a band to tour.
Are you guys planning on touring anywhere international, such as Japan or the UK?
Stephen Yeah, actually we're going in April or May with Copeland to Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. So that's going to be a really fun tour for us just because we're going with out hometown friends that we've known for years now. So that's going to be exciting. Then after that, we'd like to get to Europe sometime in the fall. But for me, I'm doing this trip in India, and then I think I'm going to go to Africa with the one campaign in December, so that's still up in the air, but I'd really like to do that.
Now after two album circuits, and a third album circuit on the way, is there a possibility of a DVD or a B-Sides/Rarities album? I know you guys have a bunch of unreleased songs.
Stephen Yeah, we actually are going to have the DVD come free with the record on the next one. It's kind of like a making of. It's a half hour DVD, it's kind of like a documentary style about recording in Seattle, Washington, it's about the areas, and the progression of how we recorded. So yeah, the DVD's coming and then there is going to be some bonus tracks on the Special Edition of the new album. There will be three extra b-sides on the Special Edition that will come out February 20th.
What are your plans with your side project, Anchor and Braille?
Stephen Aaron Marsh, our producer, and I are working on that right now. We should be done after I get back from India. It will probably take another two weeks to finish it up. Then we'll be done with the full length. We come out with a vinyl on January 25th, in about two weeks. So that's really exciting. We should have a full length out in the late summer, or early fall of 2007.
Do you plan to tour with A+B? Will it be a full band? Or is it just going to be a side project?
Stephen Well, it's just going to be a side project because definitely my focus this year, especially when Cities comes out is going to be completely on Anberlin. So, I'd love to tour on it, but it'd have to be on Anberlin's off time, maybe next fall or next November, December or January. But we'll definitely be a full band. I'd just be way to nervous if I played by myself. I'd freeze up, because I'm not a good guitarist, I'm not a good pianist, but I attempt both. I don't know, but it will definitely be full band.
Also going with A+B, did you write knowing that one song was meant for one project versus another?
Stephen Yeah, it's pretty clear as soon as I sit down at a piano, or sit down with a guitar like which
song is for who. I've written several songs for Anberlin and right as soon as I start playing the chord or the riff or start singing the melody line, I knew exactly who it was for. Anchor And Braille is a little more garage, a little more like Ryan Adams, maybe Damien Rice-ish, as opposed to Anberlin being
rock, indie stuff. So, it's pretty clear as soon as I start playing whom it's for.
Has your involvement in A+B created any tension between any members of Anberlin?
Stephen Not at all. Nate is going to start doing a side project with some of the guys in Underoath.
Joey's going to start producing some other bands in the area, and also live, they've played with me twice already, so they love it. They've been a huge supporter, and they know for sure that Anberlin is my number one priority and Anchor and Braille would never get in the way of anything having to do with Anberlin.
If you could tour with any three artists or bands, past or present, whom would you choose?
Stephen Past or present, any three. Well it would have to be The Beatles, The Smiths, and Led Zeppelin. I think they would be my three favorite bands to tour with. I mean all three have since dissipated, but I think those are the bands that I would've given anything to have seen live. That would be just amazing.
That's a crazy tour. So, it's your last show, what is the last song you would play in front of a hometown crowd?
Stephen I think it's going to be Readyfuels because it was kind of the song that kind of started it all off. It was the song that kind of got big and that got us signed. So it's definitely been a staple at pretty much every live show since and I can almost guarantee that it's the song that we go out on.
What were some of your favorite albums from last year?
Stephen There were a couple, The Magnets was a great record. It came out in the UK, it finally came out here in the US in 2006. Randomly, I really liked John Mayer's record. I thought it was good, really decent songwriting. Tom Waits came out with a record called Orphans, and it was just powerful. So did Bob Dylan, he came out with Modern Times, which was also a great record. It was the best he put out since he was a young lad. So, it was awesome, but I mean it was an okay music year, I didn't think it was the best. I did a top ten for AP.net and I think I only got to eight
or seven. I couldn't think of any, I was just like "Man! This is such a depressing year for music." I hope that 2007 will be better. There were definitely some highlights in 2006, but I'm pretty certain that 2007 will be better.
Is there any other bands or musicians you think we should know about?
Stephen Hmm there's one that's been getting a lot of notoriety and they're from the UK, they're called Phoenix. I just think that they're a really solid band. Rachel's is another one. They're like an
instrumental group from Asia and their just absolutely fabulous. Right now those are the only two that are coming to my head. I'm really into Regina Spektor right now. She's out of Russia. She's a really good songwriter. She's very different, almost Tori Amos-like, is the best way to describe her. I don't know, I just like off the wall stuff, like Animal Collective and Blonde Redhead, and stuff like that. Just because I think it's really unique songwriting, and they don't stick to the staple A-B A-B formula. So, I really dig stuff like that.
For the success, and everything you've gained and lost, do you have any regrets? If so, would you go back and change anything?
Stephen It's hard to say because there has to be hard times for you to be able to learn from them, and you have to have mistakes to learn from them. So I don't know. There have been some really, really rough times for Anberlin. I think we should've stood up for ourselves more, we allowed people to roll on us just because we were like a brand new band. We were on a couple tours where we were literally paid nothing, and we've done like three dollars a day and we've had to call our home just to get money, gas money, just to be able to drive back. We were stranded in California with no money, when the closing band was raking in the money, and we just felt like "Well, I guess this is just how it is on the road." Instead, I look back now and realize that they were just taking all the money and running and I was just like "Aw...I cannot believe that they did that." There were a lot of things I wish that I would've learned, but the cool thing is that I got to learn from my mistakes from my past, and I was able to share it with not only the listeners of the record, but any band that I came across. I was like "Hey man, here's how it really is. Here are some things you have to watch out for." It's hard to say which memories I would opt out on because I think that everything in life teaches you a good lesson. You just have to listen.
Is there anything else you would like to say to everyone reading this?
Stephen Yeah, definitely. I guess what it is is that, I went to Haiti about six months ago and
tomorrow I'm going to India, I just don't want people to feel overwhelmed and think that like just because you're not Bono from U2 or Chris Martin from Coldplay who does a lot of stuff with world trade, or Stephen from Anberlin who goes to India, just because you're not that, it doesn't mean that you can't go out into your world and make it a better place. I think that everyone should volunteer. There's a website called www.dosomething.org (http://www.dosomething.org/) . Its just a volunteer website and you just type in your zip code and it shows a whole bunch of different places that have things that they need. Habitat For Humanity is an amazing organization! You can go one weekend a month, or all the weekends of the month, and go help somebody in your local community. You can build a house, or build somewhere to stay so that they have a roof over their head, as well. So I just want to tell everybody to just get involved with the world around them and to make a difference no matter if it's something as small as smiling at somebody that's lonely or giving a homeless guy a blanket or traveling to the middle of nowhere to build a women's center. So I just want to make sure that everyone gets involved with the world around him and just stop complaining how bad things are. You can go out there and make a difference.
Anberlin is beginning to enter a new era in your careers. With the upcoming year, you have the
release of your third album. An album you have said to be your "London Calling" or "OK Computer". Do you feel that this album will truly be the one that puts you on the map?
Stephen Yeah, I do. I mean I'm not saying like "We're going to be the next biggest band of all time". Or we're going to be up there with Nirvana or Foo Fighters or Coldplay or U2. I'm not saying that's who we're going to be. I'm just saying for Anberlin as a whole, throughout our career, I am the most confident in this record. In my opinion, this is the best record Anberlin has put out to date. It's not cocky, it's just confidence in knowing that we're finally figured out who Anberlin is and we are just really excited about all these songs and the way that they came out. So I'm not saying that this is going to put us on the map, or that we're going to be the "next big thing". All I'm saying is that for Anberlin ourselves, for the five of us, we feel that this is the best that we've ever done.
As your audience gets bigger, and expectations for commercial success increases, do you feel more compelled to be "less Christian" per se in your songwriting?
Stephen No way, I'm not going to sacrifice my personal beliefs system, something that I've had faith in for about seven years now. I'm not going to put that on the backburner just because my career takes off. It's like a doctor when he graduates from med-school, does he just turn on his beliefs just because he's thrown into a career where he makes money? It's not like that. You have to stand strong with your beliefs no matter what happens in life. If someone dies in your family, or you win the lottery, in both ways you have to stick with you beliefs and stick to what you know. Anberlin is going to be here and gone. Whether it's in five years, or whether it's in ten years, or two months, two weeks. Anberlin is going to be gone one day, and I'm not going to look back on these days and regret not giving it my all, not only to the music but to my fans, my friends, my family, and for my religion. So there's no way that I would ever compromise a belief in a higher power just because of an indie rock scene. The indie rock scene is going to fade. 80's hair metal faded, grunge bands generally faded, and I mean nothing lasts. And music is one of those things that is just not going to last. So I'm not going to give up on something that I believe is eternal for the opinions of others.
What do you have to say about the progression of this album from the last two albums to now? Is this album going to be per se "all grown up"?
Stephen All grown up isn't the right term because I think it's more like a maturity of musicians. When you're on the road, like we have for pretty much the last three and a half years straight, you get better at your instrument because you play it every night. Vocally, you learn what you can do and what you can't do on stage and what range you're in. I think it's almost natural to progress. If you had been racing a car, the more you drive, the better you get. The more you play an instrument, the more you practice, the more you write songs, write lyrics, and if you play with each other every night on stage, I think you just get better at what you do. So I don't think it's all grown up and put on a new image, or dive into music that is unknown to us. It's definitely going to be an
Anberlin record. As soon as you hear the first song, you're like "obviously that's Anberlin." Were not
trying to be all "experimental," we're not the next Pink Floyd; but I definitely feel that we have gotten better at lyric writing, at melodies, at guitar, and I know for sure that this is the best record that Nathan Young, our drummer, has ever played on. It's phenomenal; we've pretty much just let him do whatever he wants. He got a bigger studio. We worked in a studio called London Bridges where Pearl Jam recorded Ten and Alice In Chains recorded their album, and Soundgarden, all these other bands. So it served to be a much better studio for Nathan. He's definitely improved; this is biggest drumming it's ever sounded.
Were there any specific reasons for wanting to work with Aaron Sprinkle again? I know he's been
there forever and seen all your progress, but is there a certain sound you wanted to achieve with him?
Stephen Well actually, we were still up in the air if we were going to use Aaron again. Because we didn't want it to sound, even though we still wanted to stay Anberlin, we weren't getting crazy with our music or trying to be all experimental, we definitely wanted to make sure that this album didn't sound like Never Take Friendship Personal Part Two. I think that's one of the reasons that we did move over to the studio, London Bridges, and not stay in the compounds. We got a different engineer for this record; we definitely went with a much better mixer, and a person that just took the studio to the next level. I guess he was getting better at his profession while we were getting better at ours, and when we talked to him, "You know, Aaron, we just don't want to make a repeat of the last record." He's like "Well, let me think about it." He got back to us and was like "Here are some things that we can change." We're really confident in Aaron's production skills. He's just a great producer, he's a great guy, and we all work really well with him at the end of the day. Then we wanted to change and kind of mix it up with the producers, but at the end of the day, we realized that we shouldn't reinvent the wheel if it's really working for us. Aaron was growing as we grew. So I'm really happy we went with him, and I don't think this record could've turned out as well if we didn't go with Aaron Sprinkle.
What was the writing process like for this album? Did the lyrics come first for your songs, or the melodies?
Stephen Well I think it's pretty much the music that comes first. Joey will either lock himself into the back of the bus or lock himself into his room, and just sit there for days and write and write and write. So when he's done with that, he kind of mixes it down into a CD, gives me the CD, and I'll put it on my iPod. Then I go off on my own and write melodies and lyrics. A lot of times, we just have to compromise. We'll be like "This song is horrible, we need to rewrite it." Or "This line doesn't make sense here. It's just kind of a give and take from there. On other songs like the one we released on iTunes called The Haunting, it was a song that I had written on an acoustic guitar. So I showed Joey the basic chord structure and where the melodies go, and then he goes and kind of rewrites it in his fashion. So that's how it works.
Did you have any central themes, or stories implemented into this album?
Stephen Well it's not like a concept record, or anything like that, but the underlying theme, I'd say, is that it's all about the darker side of life. Whether it's finding yourself in solitude, or just being effected. I guess Cities is more like letting all the skeletons out of the closet and exposing it
for the whole world to see. It's by far the most introspective and autobiographical album we've ever put out. I think it just dives onto a lot of deeper topics, and I think people can relate more if they cling onto the song more, if they can relate to the record. It's like, "Wow man, I've totally experience that before." I think people really cling onto that more, so that's what I try to do. I try to expose as much of myself in the record as humanly possible.
Have you guys chosen a first single off the new album? I know you have released Godspeed and everything, but there has been some speculation that that might not be it.
Stephen Yeah, there is still speculation. We're not 100% sure at this moment. It's not my favorite song on the record, but it's our record labels favorite song right now. We're still talking about it because I don't like it when a band releases a single and it sounds nothing like the rest of the record. I'm not saying Godspeed doesn't sound like anything on the record, but I want the medium, I don't want it to be completely aggressive, or completely on the slow end. I want it to be right in the middle so that when people buy the record theyre not disappointed at all. Godspeed is definitely one of the more aggressive songs on the record, so I just didn't want anyone to be disappointed when they got the record and realized that not all of the songs are much like Godspeed. We're up in the air, as for now Godspeed is the so-called single.
You were just talking about your personal favorite. Is there any song off the new album that was your personal favorite? Or a song you have a personal attachment to?
Stephen Yeah, I don't know when you write a song, it's just hard to pick between them because they all kind of mean something to you. But I guess the one that I probably listen to the most, like over and over, is Fin. Also, Unwinding Cable Car as well. I think that the way that those are structured is pretty unique, and unique to definitely any other Anberlin song. So I really like those two, right now.
Growing up, did you want to be a musician?
Stephen No, I didn't man, I kind of just fell into it. It was always in the back of my head, but it never seemed plausible because I mean, look on Purevolume right now. There must be like almost three hundred thousand bands listed just on Purevolume alone, let alone that's just one specific genre. So there must be like a million bands out there and I never thought in a million years that I'd be like "Oh yeah, I'm going to make it". So it was kind of just like after high school I was just like, "Well, I'm going to college, I'm just going to go start." So I don't know, I was just in this little side band, and one thing led to the next and led to the next and before I knew it, I was swept up on touring full time. I was just like "Oh my gosh, how did this happen?" But, well growing up, I actually wanted to work for like the Peace Corps, and kind of do like humanitarian projects around the world. I would love, even when Anberlin gets done, to go and work with and start orphanages around the world. That would be something that I would completely love to do.
Yeah, I hear you guys are going to India soon.
Stephen Yeah! Right before you called I was packing up my backpack and getting all ready. We leave tomorrow; we'll be gone for about fourteen days. We're going over there to build arts and crafts in the communities, which is also a part of a woman's center where girls who have been a victim of the sex trade, and sex slavery. It's exciting and it's something that is worthwhile for me, and very fulfilling, and something that I definitely want to spread to others, you know? And they don't have to go to India, or Africa, or anywhere, they can just go to their own community, and start to change it for the better.
That's really cool. How did the local scene influence you growing up? What were some of your biggest influences in music and in life?
Stephen Well growing up here, I live in Polk County, which is seriously the redneck capitol of Florida. *laughs* I mean like there's only pick-up trucks and country music here. It's so I just can't stand it we were so very detached, we didn't have like Punk Planet or Alternative Press or anything like that. Because here, it just wasn't popular at newsstands, it was pretty much just like Country Music Times, or whatever. I don't know. So we pretty much had to create our own scene. A lot of us were in a whole bunch of different bands before Anberlin. We just kind of created it, like I seriously ran my own club that was called Mutiny. I was seriously fifteen years old, and I was running this club, just trying to get all these bands from around the country, it was awesome! But then we started to feed off each other, and then out of that small scene, here out of Central Florida area, Copeland came out, and Underoath, and us, and Further Seems Forever. But we all knew each other, like we were all friends way back in the day, and played shows, and I'd play with Timmy from Underoath's band one weekend, he'd come open up for mine here. We all just switched bands. Like at one time, there were like four main bands, none of them being who they are now. They all had different names, and different members. But we would just like switch off. "We'll all come and play in your town, this weekend, and next week, you come spend the night at my house, and we'll all play up here." So it was awesome because we weren't really influences from somebody on the outside. During that time the big bands were like The Offspring and Green Day. We just had no clue about who they were. So that's why I think like Copeland sounds like an original band. Then Underoath is pioneering the screamo scene. We're pretty rock 'n' rolled out, we try and hope we don't sound like anyone else, and I think that the reason being is that we were in this little bubble. We had no idea what was going on on the outside. Then it finally hit, and then somebody at Tooth and Nail discovered that there was this little community of musicians that we should take a chance on. Then, we signed to Tooth and Nail as did Underoath and Copeland went off to The Militia Group. But literally, we lived about fifteen minutes away from each other. So, it was an amazing scene growing up, so we're carefree. Its just awesome to watch those two other bands just explode on the scene. There were some local bands that really influenced all of us as kids, like Seraph, was one. They never made it outside of Polk County. Denison Marrs had a really big influence on Copeland. So there was a whole bunch of bands in the local scene that in our eyes, we thought they were huge, but came to find out that they never really got out of Florida. But in our eyes they were such an influence.
How have you guys responded to the major label seduction?
Stephen Well, that's what we're dealing with right now. We're deciding to go on with a major label or stay on Tooth and Nail, and it's a really hard decision because there are advantages to being on both sides. But honestly there is not much more benefit of going with a major label anymore. Underoath re-signed, they got courted by a whole bunch of major labels but instead they went with Tooth and Nail. It's just that major labels aren't what they used to be. They have all the money in the world, but they have no passion, they have very little passion for your band. They just want what will make them the quick money. In the bands eyes, that could definitely be a benefit, because we
could get more exposure, we could get the CD out there, we could potentially "blow up". But does anyone really like the music? Or are we just a here and now, in the moment band. That's not who we've been in the past, and it doesn't feel like we should change that now. Tooth and Nail have never really treated us poorly; they are really great people. Now they are my really good friends, some of my best friends are John Frazier and Chad Johnson over at Tooth and Nail, our marketing guy and our A&R. They are just two great guys that I hang out with every time I'm in Seattle. So, it's hard to just say, "Oh, we'd love to go to a major label." Because major labels just aren't what they used to be anymore. We just have to do what's best for Anberlin and for the listeners and if we feel we can get more people to try our music out if we go with a major label. But, it's definitely not about the money anymore. Indie labels are as big as major labels now as far as finances go now, as far as how much the actual bands get. So, I don't know, it's up in the air. I don't think it's a matter of "selling out" because who hasn't sold out? I mean indie rock is the new pop. I mean, we are pop music now. Everything from Fall Out Boy to My Chemical Romance are now the leading bands where bands like N*SYNC and Backstreet Boys were five years ago. So, it's not selling out anymore, in staying with indie labels, staying with major labels, it's the same thing nowadays.
Well, actually going along with that how do you feel about the mainstream success of some of the bands you've toured with in the past, like Fall Out Boy and Yellowcard?
Stephen It's awesome, I love it. I'm proud of those guys. I have nothing negative to say about either of those bands. Those guys are so cool. You know, Fall Out Boy treated us so good. Patrick and Andy were some of the coolest people I've ever met. I'm proud of it. I'm stoked to be a part of a scene where music writers are taking the place of puppets. I think all that bubblegum, fake, pop crap can go because it's time that we go back to people writing their own music and playing their own instrument. This is it, this is the music to come, this is the new rock. So, I'm excited man, I'm glad that it's just turned back to the songwriting, not just some fifty year old guy writing music about "Oops I Did It Again", and making a million bucks. It's just disgusting, so whatever.
You have an upcoming tour with Bayside, Meg And Dia, and Jonezetta. You have managed to be booked on a lot of great tours in the past; do you think it's necessary for a band to tour extensively in order to get any "bigger"?
Stephen Absolutely. I mean, you can buy a whole bunch of ads in magazines and do interviews, but until people connect with your music and can be like "Wow, these guys are legit." They can see not only how you act onstage, but how you act offstage as well. If people think you're being cocky, or being stuck-up, people realize that stuff, and people then know what your motives for being in a band are. So I definitely think touring is the biggest marketing you can do for your band. The best thing you can do is to get on the road, and stay on the road. I mean, you get to introduce yourself to new people, and get to see new places and maybe expose yourself to music that's different and could potentially influence you. So I think it's imperative for a band to tour.
Are you guys planning on touring anywhere international, such as Japan or the UK?
Stephen Yeah, actually we're going in April or May with Copeland to Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. So that's going to be a really fun tour for us just because we're going with out hometown friends that we've known for years now. So that's going to be exciting. Then after that, we'd like to get to Europe sometime in the fall. But for me, I'm doing this trip in India, and then I think I'm going to go to Africa with the one campaign in December, so that's still up in the air, but I'd really like to do that.
Now after two album circuits, and a third album circuit on the way, is there a possibility of a DVD or a B-Sides/Rarities album? I know you guys have a bunch of unreleased songs.
Stephen Yeah, we actually are going to have the DVD come free with the record on the next one. It's kind of like a making of. It's a half hour DVD, it's kind of like a documentary style about recording in Seattle, Washington, it's about the areas, and the progression of how we recorded. So yeah, the DVD's coming and then there is going to be some bonus tracks on the Special Edition of the new album. There will be three extra b-sides on the Special Edition that will come out February 20th.
What are your plans with your side project, Anchor and Braille?
Stephen Aaron Marsh, our producer, and I are working on that right now. We should be done after I get back from India. It will probably take another two weeks to finish it up. Then we'll be done with the full length. We come out with a vinyl on January 25th, in about two weeks. So that's really exciting. We should have a full length out in the late summer, or early fall of 2007.
Do you plan to tour with A+B? Will it be a full band? Or is it just going to be a side project?
Stephen Well, it's just going to be a side project because definitely my focus this year, especially when Cities comes out is going to be completely on Anberlin. So, I'd love to tour on it, but it'd have to be on Anberlin's off time, maybe next fall or next November, December or January. But we'll definitely be a full band. I'd just be way to nervous if I played by myself. I'd freeze up, because I'm not a good guitarist, I'm not a good pianist, but I attempt both. I don't know, but it will definitely be full band.
Also going with A+B, did you write knowing that one song was meant for one project versus another?
Stephen Yeah, it's pretty clear as soon as I sit down at a piano, or sit down with a guitar like which
song is for who. I've written several songs for Anberlin and right as soon as I start playing the chord or the riff or start singing the melody line, I knew exactly who it was for. Anchor And Braille is a little more garage, a little more like Ryan Adams, maybe Damien Rice-ish, as opposed to Anberlin being
rock, indie stuff. So, it's pretty clear as soon as I start playing whom it's for.
Has your involvement in A+B created any tension between any members of Anberlin?
Stephen Not at all. Nate is going to start doing a side project with some of the guys in Underoath.
Joey's going to start producing some other bands in the area, and also live, they've played with me twice already, so they love it. They've been a huge supporter, and they know for sure that Anberlin is my number one priority and Anchor and Braille would never get in the way of anything having to do with Anberlin.
If you could tour with any three artists or bands, past or present, whom would you choose?
Stephen Past or present, any three. Well it would have to be The Beatles, The Smiths, and Led Zeppelin. I think they would be my three favorite bands to tour with. I mean all three have since dissipated, but I think those are the bands that I would've given anything to have seen live. That would be just amazing.
That's a crazy tour. So, it's your last show, what is the last song you would play in front of a hometown crowd?
Stephen I think it's going to be Readyfuels because it was kind of the song that kind of started it all off. It was the song that kind of got big and that got us signed. So it's definitely been a staple at pretty much every live show since and I can almost guarantee that it's the song that we go out on.
What were some of your favorite albums from last year?
Stephen There were a couple, The Magnets was a great record. It came out in the UK, it finally came out here in the US in 2006. Randomly, I really liked John Mayer's record. I thought it was good, really decent songwriting. Tom Waits came out with a record called Orphans, and it was just powerful. So did Bob Dylan, he came out with Modern Times, which was also a great record. It was the best he put out since he was a young lad. So, it was awesome, but I mean it was an okay music year, I didn't think it was the best. I did a top ten for AP.net and I think I only got to eight
or seven. I couldn't think of any, I was just like "Man! This is such a depressing year for music." I hope that 2007 will be better. There were definitely some highlights in 2006, but I'm pretty certain that 2007 will be better.
Is there any other bands or musicians you think we should know about?
Stephen Hmm there's one that's been getting a lot of notoriety and they're from the UK, they're called Phoenix. I just think that they're a really solid band. Rachel's is another one. They're like an
instrumental group from Asia and their just absolutely fabulous. Right now those are the only two that are coming to my head. I'm really into Regina Spektor right now. She's out of Russia. She's a really good songwriter. She's very different, almost Tori Amos-like, is the best way to describe her. I don't know, I just like off the wall stuff, like Animal Collective and Blonde Redhead, and stuff like that. Just because I think it's really unique songwriting, and they don't stick to the staple A-B A-B formula. So, I really dig stuff like that.
For the success, and everything you've gained and lost, do you have any regrets? If so, would you go back and change anything?
Stephen It's hard to say because there has to be hard times for you to be able to learn from them, and you have to have mistakes to learn from them. So I don't know. There have been some really, really rough times for Anberlin. I think we should've stood up for ourselves more, we allowed people to roll on us just because we were like a brand new band. We were on a couple tours where we were literally paid nothing, and we've done like three dollars a day and we've had to call our home just to get money, gas money, just to be able to drive back. We were stranded in California with no money, when the closing band was raking in the money, and we just felt like "Well, I guess this is just how it is on the road." Instead, I look back now and realize that they were just taking all the money and running and I was just like "Aw...I cannot believe that they did that." There were a lot of things I wish that I would've learned, but the cool thing is that I got to learn from my mistakes from my past, and I was able to share it with not only the listeners of the record, but any band that I came across. I was like "Hey man, here's how it really is. Here are some things you have to watch out for." It's hard to say which memories I would opt out on because I think that everything in life teaches you a good lesson. You just have to listen.
Is there anything else you would like to say to everyone reading this?
Stephen Yeah, definitely. I guess what it is is that, I went to Haiti about six months ago and
tomorrow I'm going to India, I just don't want people to feel overwhelmed and think that like just because you're not Bono from U2 or Chris Martin from Coldplay who does a lot of stuff with world trade, or Stephen from Anberlin who goes to India, just because you're not that, it doesn't mean that you can't go out into your world and make it a better place. I think that everyone should volunteer. There's a website called www.dosomething.org (http://www.dosomething.org/) . Its just a volunteer website and you just type in your zip code and it shows a whole bunch of different places that have things that they need. Habitat For Humanity is an amazing organization! You can go one weekend a month, or all the weekends of the month, and go help somebody in your local community. You can build a house, or build somewhere to stay so that they have a roof over their head, as well. So I just want to tell everybody to just get involved with the world around them and to make a difference no matter if it's something as small as smiling at somebody that's lonely or giving a homeless guy a blanket or traveling to the middle of nowhere to build a women's center. So I just want to make sure that everyone gets involved with the world around him and just stop complaining how bad things are. You can go out there and make a difference.